U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski asked the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday to justify its decision to include Midway Airport on a list of air-traffic control towers that potentially would close during overnight hours because of the federal budget cuts mandated under sequestration. The Illinois Democrat, whose district includes Midway, sent a letter Monday to FAA Administrator Michael Huerta expressing "strong opposition" to the possible overnight...

Although Chicago still has not lined up funding to build the final new runway planned at O'Hare International Airport, the U.S. government offered $3.4 million Monday to design an air-traffic control tower to serve the future airstrip. The proposed tower, to be located on the south airfield, would be the third control tower at O'Hare. It would serve the planned 7,500-foot runway 10 Right/28 Left, the southern-most runway of six east-west runways envisioned in the...

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Armed men who took control of the airport in Ukraine's Crimean regional centre of Simferopol on Friday are patrolling the airport grounds but have not moved into the passenger terminal and appear to be allowing the airport to function normally. A Reuters eyewitness at the scene said the men, dressed in full battle gear and carrying assault rifles and machine guns, were moving freely in an...

An investigation into the crash of a plane into Milan's landmark Pirelli tower concluded Wednesday that the "most probable" cause was that the pilot couldn't steer through technical difficulties, not that he tried to kill himself. In its findings, the National Agency of Air Security also said "ambiguous, inadequate and contradictory" instructions from the control tower may have contributed to the crash. Pilot Luigi Fasulo, 67, and two workers inside the Pirelli tower were killed...

Work is expected to begin soon on phase two of a $4.2 million runway reconstruction project at Lewis University Airport in Romeoville. A $2.5 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) helped start construction in the spring on the eastern half of Runway 9-27, according to state and local officials. The FAA recently awarded an additional $1.3 million grant for construction on the runway's western half and the entire project should be completed before winter. The...

By Rep. John Matijevich, a state representative from North Chicago | June 30, 1986

Using its own rigid interpretation of federal airport guidelines, the Great Lakes Regional office of the Federal Aviation Administration has determined that Waukegan Regional Airport does not qualify for an air traffic control tower. Yet Waukegan has been designated officially as a reliever airport by the FAA in order to handle business and general aviation aircraft unable to land at O`Hare or Midway airports due to congestion or weather. It is the newest and largest all-weather...

WASHINGTON, May 10 (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration has canceled plans o close 149 air traffic control towers at smaller U.S. airports that it earlier said would be necessary to meet required spending cuts, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said on Friday. "This victory is thanks to a bipartisan coalition of senators and congressmen and women who came together to demonstrate that there are more responsible ways to cut spending than by...

Midway Airport has received a reprieve from possible overnight closings of its air traffic control tower, U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski said Tuesday. The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to announce Wednesday that 72 airports, including Midway, that were on an FAA list to potentially furlough all controllers working the midnight shift, as part of the sequestration budget cuts, will instead remain open for at least the rest of the current fiscal...

Preliminary work began Monday on the first of two air-traffic control towers to serve future runways at O'Hare. Breaking ground for the 255-foot north airfield tower marked a transition in the $15 billion O'Hare expansion project from primarily earth-moving activities that began more than a year ago to construction that will lead to the first new runway opening at the airport in more than 30 years. Walsh Construction Co. crews began drilling concrete caissons for...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It's been dubbed the most expensive prison on Earth and President Barack Obama cited the cost this week as one of many reasons to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, which burns through some $900,000 per prisoner annually. The Pentagon estimates it spends about $150 million each year to operate the prison and military court system at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, which was set up 11 years ago to house foreign terrorism suspects. With 166...

The Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to keep the control tower at the DuPage Airport open during nighttime hours for an additional 30 days to allow airport staff to respond to an FAA study that calls for the tower to be shut down at night, an airport official said Monday. "We've found serious faults in this study, and they have to be addressed," airport director Gordon Cole told DuPage Airport Authority board members. The control tower, which has operated 24 hours a day for 25...

By Alwyn Scott NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - Travelers waited more than an hour for flights in New York and experienced delays at other U.S. airports on Sunday evening as furloughs of air traffic controllers began, reducing the ability of busy hubs to handle arrivals and departures, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The furloughs that started Sunday reduced staffing by 10 percent across the country. Last week the FAA warned of delays ...

Federal investigators will explore whether traffic-control factors at Waukegan Regional Airport contributed to the midair crash Tuesday in Zion that killed three people, including radio host Bob Collins. Their new focus follows an all-night session with equipment experts that ruled out mechanical failure. "We are going to look at the air-traffic-control issues pretty hard," David Bowling, the investigator in charge for the National Transportation Safety Board, said Friday.

Major U.S. airports began instituting personnel cuts of 10 percent in control towers Sunday night, prompting travelers to wait more than an hour for flights in New York and causing delays at other airports on Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Los Angeles International reported nearly a two-hour delay at 10 pm ET, and Newark Liberty International reported 28-minute delays, though the FAA could not confirm whether those were related to the staff cuts. Delays of up to...

In 1998 officials at DuPage Airport in West Chicago agreed to pay at least $114,000 a year to the Federal Aviation Administration to subsidize an overnight shift at the airport's control tower. But internal airport memos suggest that officials shortchanged the FAA less than six months after completing the deal. Instead of reimbursing the agency for staffing the tower between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., as the agreement states, the airport did its own calculations and underpaid the agency by...